Kuzwe Participates in Brown's Gas Panel
Oct 14, 2008
The Hydrogen Energy Center recently invited the Kuzwe founders to participate on a panel on the topic of Brown's gas and hydrogen injection.
The goal of the panel was to cut through some of the controversy surrounding fuel additives, including Brown's gas, that many people have reported using to increase overall fuel efficiency in traditional gas-fueled cars.
Of course, Kuzwe's owners are interested in fuel efficiency... it's a driving force behind the development of the Circle 18SM engine. Paul Maguire, Kuzwe's principal investigator, talked about his experience modifying his personal vehicles, including hydrogen injection. Paul also demonstrated a brand-new water injection system that he worked with Volvo to configure. The vehicle also features a reprogrammed fuel computer and other modifications.
The room was packed, and it was an interesting night, to say the least. Dr. Jay Vreeland shared some thermodynamic analysis that explained how a net energy gain is theoretically possible when using hydrogen injection. Another panelist was also on hand to assure us that we are wasting our time, and that the numbers Paul reported couldn't possible be accurate! This panelist runs a fuel efficiency test lab and seemed to be a big defender of the status quo. Our position is that when the science says heat engines can be 67% efficient and we're only getting 20%, it's good to explore every avenue for improvement. We're also big believers in what we see with our own eyes - which in Paul's case has been an increase of over 50% in mileage. Of course, this is the result of several modifications carefully tuned by professional mechanics... your mileage may vary, as the saying goes.
Even though the panel did not reach any kind of consensus, we were grateful for the opportunity to participate. It may be difficult to measure fuel efficiency without expensive testing, but we think that thousands of individual mechanics tinkering with their vehicles is a great thing. If we wait for the established players - who have us throwing away eighty cents on the dollar for decades without any major improvement - we might be waiting for a long time!